6 reviews

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George Sawer December 5, 2007

Ah Nicole, lovely Nicole. Who would have thought in 1983 that the co-star of a small Australian film about BMX enthusiasts (BMX Bandits) would one day grow up into the goddess that we now see before us, and have us falling at her feet? As the sinister anti-heroine of The Golden Compass, she is the chief draw of this slick Christmas film.

Based on the first part of Philip Pullman’s esteemed His Dark Materials trilogy, The Golden Compass (Northern Lights is the title of the source novel) takes us through the early stages of Lyra Belacqua’s (Dakota Blue Richards) journey out of her closed Oxford world and into something altogether more different. I have difficulty believing that there is anyone left on the planet who doesn’t know the story, so I’m not going to waste much time talking about it. The film is a well-crafted and watchable experience, and it puts all the necessary elements of Pullman’s worlds on screen. It's also relatively short and very light on its feet, and the better for it I think: Chris Weitz is an efficient and skilled director who knows how to adapt a long novel economically.

By far the best of it are the early stages, set in and around Oxford university and featuring what is almost a cameo by Daniel Craig as Lyra’s “Uncle”, Lord Asriel. Craig proves, as he did in Casino Royale, that he really is a very good actor and highly charismatic screen presence, not good looking exactly, but unquestionably attractive in a bizarre kind of way. Our beautiful city too has rarely looked better, infused as it is with the subtle surreal tinge that marks it out as a semi-parallel world. Richards’ performance as Lyra is competent but unremarkable – she doesn’t so much carry the film as wander casually through it, and her accent varies wildly between guttersnipe and Head Girl.

The Golden Compass is Kidman’s show though, and doesn’t she know it. Like Madonna when she played Eva Peron, she sails through the film with an air of glamorous self-importance that makes one go weak at the knees. Although her screen time is relatively limited, the movie hums with the feel of her even when she’s off-screen. Her best moments are those when she comes close to losing that mask of congeniality and revealing the wicked witch within (eg. the shoulder bag incident and the time she issues a shocking bitch slap to her daemon). Like most trilogy openers, this film ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, and I must say I’m quite looking forward to seeing what happens next, and what I hope will be revealed in the next instalments: Asriel and Marisa Coulter’s backstory and the early life of Lyra, more Daniel Craig, and the first on screen meeting between Craig and Kidman. It’s a tantalising prospect…

I loved the film and I think it was really good. You people are probably all adults and it's not meant to be aimed at them anyway. Dakota Blue Richards is a very good actress and so are all the others. This has not been poorly directed, but I do agree that parts of the plot are rushed or not mentioned. I say "Well done Phillip Pullman!"

Kiera 14 Oct 2009

I agree totally with JCM, but having seen Stardust a few weeks before can't help thinking what an immensely better and more exciting fantasy it was than this disappointment of a film. Both are films of books but Stardust actually improved on Gaiman's book and this film is feeble compared to Pullman's book. What would one expect from the director who mangled About A Boy?

So why wasn't Stardust plugged as the Xmas fantasy blockbuster instead of this rubbish?

bookworm 21 Dec 2007

I know we all like turkey at Christmas but it’s better on the dinner table than displayed in glorious CGI thirty foot high in front of you.

How do you know you’re watching a turkey? One basic giveaway is that there is a thrilling narrative climax in the trailer which is absent from the final edit. So it is here: the trailer showed enticing footage of Daniel Craig, gimlet-eyed as ever, against a swirling background of green ‘Northern Lights’ shouting the kind of thing that anti-heroes always shout at these moments, ‘No!’ or ‘You are mine forever!’ or ‘I have won!’ Somewhere in Hollywood there is a canister with the climax to ‘The Golden Compass’, but either through timidity in the face of perceived-likely boycotting by religious groups, or the stupidity of executives, or the director’s (Chris Weitz) inability to keep the narrative together, or a test audience’s objections to too many climactic scenes (Oh no, multiple things happening all at once! narrative surprise! a twist: who would have thought it?), we are left with a movie that provides no reason for the next couple of books to be filmed – Lyra does not accidentally betray her mate Roger to his death at her scheming father’s hands, so she has no reason to quest on through ever more outlandish scenarios in order to defeat the underworld’s grip upon the dead – which is a good thing, because if the next films are as style-obsessed but as shallow as this one, they’ll play to empty houses. It would be simpler just to agree now that it was all a big mistake and that the books aren’t the kind of texts which should move to the screen.

The audience the night I attended laughed openly at the emotionally-void, awkward dialogue. They roared with glee that a polar bear should have the perfectly-articulated tones of Sir Ian McKellen: “First I was a wizard, now I am a bear!” It’s a shame he’s already been on Ricki Gervais’s ‘Extras’.

The film looks lovely from the start but the fancy design negates the magic of the first book which steals up on the reader with the idea of an alternative Oxford which is essentially our own but different. Here, anyway, a crass voice-over narrates that difference to us. Don’t, whatever you do, let the audience use its imagination. It’s a shame, as the books are great to read. Still, we know what will be happening in households everywhere on Christmas afternoon: the children will chant, ‘Can we have turkey again this year?’ and dutifully their parents will get out a DVD of ‘The Golden Compass’ and pop it in the machine.

JCM 19 Dec 2007

Don't bother! If you have read the book, you'll curse yourself for spoiling it all by watching this movie. If you haven't - you can spend your money better by watching something else. Nicole Kidman looks gorgeous but that is the only good thing I can say about the movie. Oh, other than Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra is reasonably good too. The script is totally rushed leaving no room for the story to develop. The computer-generated deamons are incredibly outdated (the dinosaurs in Jurassic park looked better).

Philip Pullman makes no bones in his book that he is referring to the Church as the sinister figures. (Personally, I disagree with his views even though I loved the book; but that is another story) In the movie however, this becomes a mysterious 'magesterium' with no reference to religion. Obviously done to appease the American audiences and protect revenue. Not that it matters much, because the movie itself is so bad that it will fail at the box office in spite of covering up Pullman's anti-Church views.

Just hope the movie makers have enough sense not to make the remaining two books into movies.

Asima 11 Dec 2007

As anyone who's read the book will know, The Golden Compass (or Northern Lights) is the first part of an epic trilogy following the journey of two children to save their worlds (and others) from the controlling grasp of the mysterious Magesterium. The first part of the story follows one of these children: Lyra, a young orphan who lives in the care of Jordan College in Oxford.

First of all this film looks amazing. It's fantastic to see so much of the books realised in such an inventive and well-designed manner. The airships, the clothing, the sets and the daemons all look fantastic. However, sadly the film is let down by a very clunky script. It's a travesty that Chris Weitz decided to write the film himself. He does a great job of realising the books as a visual medium, but he has made a complete pig's ear of the dialogue, the pacing, and dispenses with much of the subtlety and intelligence of the original.

The casting, fortunately, is inspired. Nicole Kidman was always Philip Pullman's first choice for Marisa Coulter and you can see why. She is perfect as the seductive yet dangerous woman who is an intriguing ‘villain'. Power-hungry and struggling to overcome her maternal feelings for Lyra she is a beautiful enigma and Kidman completely expresses this with flair and obvious enjoyment of the role. Dakota Blue Richards, a complete unknown before this film, puts Daniel Radcliffe and co. to shame as our fiery and brave young heroine. Visually all of the characters are brilliantly realised. Pan in particular was a joy to watch and, as in the books, made me wish for a daemon of my own. The CGI in this film is flawless; I only wish Weitz could have added an extra half an hour to allow more screen-time to the beautiful sets as well as easing up on the rather hurried story.

Sarah Brett 10 Dec 2007